Of Truth and Lies
by Arraela
Summary: Hermione has trouble dealing with her feelings about Malfoy. She doesn't know whether he is a good person pretending to be bad, or a bad person pretending to be good. Bad summary, likely a worse story. Hermione/Draco


**Discovery**

_James Cartwin discovered the Flem Root in 1431…_ Hermione mumbled softly as she read from her herbology book. She was sitting in the library on a desk facing the shelves, her hair was draped over her right shoulder, shielding her view of the rest of the library. Hermione reread the words. She could not concentrate, the words were only that, words, without meaning. The studious girl hated to admit that she was distracted, distracted by a male presence who she knew was right across the stacks.

_Hermione,_ she told herself,_ get a grip, it's Malfoy._ She knew she shouldn't fancy him. She loathed him, and he loathed her. But she couldn't help but notice the subtle changes of his features, as well as in his demeanor. His once boyish appearance had matured nicely, he now held a strong square and powerful jaw line, haunting blue eyes and full red lips that were set on creamy white skin and framed by silky blonde hair. He was incredibly attractive. Hermione had also noticed that he had stopped calling her mudblood, though she wasn't sure if that was done on purpose, she hardly ever spoke to him anymore.

When she was sure he wasn't watching she'd sneak a glance at him, and watch the way he's shake those gorgeous long white tendrils of hair out of his eyes. Hermione decided to sneak a quick glance in his direction; she nonchalantly shook her hair off her shoulder before allowing her eyes to dart in his direction. He wasn't there. Disappointment was apparent on Hermione's face when she saw his absence, though she quickly turned back to her book, fearful that somebody may catch her searching for the slytherin.

"Ha-! Hey ErMione" Hermione turned just in time to see Draco Malfoy practically leap into the seat beside her at her table. Malfoy was laughing obnoxiously with his friends before he turned to face Hermione, humor still apparent on his face. Instinctively, she moved her chair as far away from him as she could without alerting him of her aversion.

Hermione ignored him and she replaced her hair curtain over her right shoulder, blocking her view of him.

"Hermione," he repeated, calling for her attention.

"Go away Malfoy." She hissed, without looking in his direction.

"Alright then, since I can see that we aren't going to be diplomatic about this, I'll just get to the point. What are you doing tomorrow evening?"

Hermione's jaw dropped, she was glad that Malfoy couldn't see her. _Is this some screwed up plan to kill me or something? _

"What?" Hermione said sullenly, asking for clarification.

His voice seemed uncomfortable now, "I didn't choose you because I wanted to, you were really the only option." He swallowed, "Snape said he needs two students to help with the _ostractus ormentus_ and he enlisted me to help. He figured that the students should be competent, so, of course, he asked me to be the first. He said I should choose the second, but there's really nobody in my house, nobody else at all, that I know could do this right. You might be acceptable."

Hermione was immediately fascinated. _Ostractus Ormentus? I didn't even know that was still around!_ She tried to hide her excitement and keep her voice cool. "fine. What time?"

"Seven o'clock should be fine."

"Fine then." Hermione didn't look up, she expected him to leave. She heard his chair sliding across the floor and footsteps leading away. When she was sure he was gone she let out a deep breath. _How am I going to contain myself tomorrow?_

The next day Hermione tried not to think about the night that lay ahead. She went through her classes in her normal fashion, not telling anyone of her plans for the evening. After Hermione, Harry, and Ron had eaten dinner in the Great Hall, Hermione bid them goodbye. When questioned about her plans, Hermione reluctantly revealed that she was working on a special potion for Snape's class.

Harry and Ron then departed with a final "you better get some bloody house points for that…" from Ron, and Hermione made her way to the dungeon. It felt awkward being at the part of the castle so late at night, she was used to the dark, but knowing what she was about to do, who with, and the time made it feel all the more frightening.

She laid 3 hard knocks on the dungeon door.

"Come in." Hermione pushed the large wooden entrance before joining Malfoy and Snape in the familiar potions class room.

"The fungi needs to be added directly after the root, and then you stir twice to the left and once to the right, until it turns blue…" Snape was telling Malfoy.

He paused impatiently, "you're late."

Hermione looked at the clock over the door, it was 6:55. "I'm not…" Hermione mumbled to herself, knowing it would be useless to argue.

"Draco," Snape murmured, "fill Ms. Granger in on what we have learned. Then I'll expect you two to have the potion ready in 30 minutes. I'll be in my office" He then stomped away, his cloak sweeping behind him.

Malfoy shot Hermione a fierce glance before ordering her to cut the roots into smaller pieces. She tried not to make the pain he caused her from his harsh tone apparent as she chopped the roots into smaller and smaller pieces.

"Enough." Malfoy took a handful of the roots and dropped them into a steaming cauldron. Hermione noticed that a potions book was open, she leaned in front of him, in order to get a better look.

"Hmm… Atnus seeds…"she thought aloud, "she unconsciously found 5 Atnus seeds and began stirring them into the potion, all the while reading from the book. She didn't notice the look of horror on Malfoy's face as he slowly eased away from her.

Hermione straightened easily before tossing in another ingredient.  
"Alright…" malfoy muttered, "and we have to let it cool then freeze it to -10 degrees."

"Celsius?" Hermione questioned.

"No," Malfoy grinned, "Kelvin."

Hermione smiled at the joke, all the while reveling at how beautiful Malfoy looked when he smiled.

Then the two worked silently for several minutes, until the silence became almost unbearable.

"What do you plan to do, after this?" Hermione asked, attempting to alleviate the stale tension.

"Hm?" Malfoy looked at Hermione, surprised.

"Your plans," Hermione clarified, "after Hogwarts."

Malfoy paused as he cast a cooling charm on the potion. "I don't know. I may work in the ministry."

"The ministry?" Hermione asked, taken aback, "what do you want to do there?"

"I kind of want to…" Malfoy paused as he studied Hermione's expression, "become an auror."

"An auror?" Hermione failed to hide her shock.

"Don't act so surprised, Hermione, despite what your little annoying friends might think, I'm not interested in the Dark Arts."

"I'm not surprised…" Hermione countered weakly as Malfoy shot her a doubtful look, "much."

Malfoy chuckled under his breath. "For being such a brain, you really are dense."

"_Dense?_" Hermione repeated.

"Yes, intensely so."

"I'm not dense."

"Whatever you say…" Malfoy's words were dripping with sarcasm.

Hermione contemplated his words for a moment. "Prove me wrong."

Malfoy smirked, "alright…remember how you thought that I was the heir of slytherin?"

Hermione nodded, "yes, but you gave us hundreds of reasons to suspect you."

"You _made up_ hundreds of reasons to suspect me. Just because I disliked you and your friends, you automatically assume that I am the heir of slytherin. The fact that my family believes in social hierarchy in magical society doesn't really say anything about _me._ Just about _them._"

"So you don't agree?" Hermione asked speculatively.

"For the most part, no."

Malfoy registered Hermione's look of disbelief and question.

"I did," he clarified, "as in, in the past. I was taught that the brightest and most successful witches and wizards were purebloods, mostly slytherin, and I believed it. But then, everything I was taught was proven wrong."

Hermione was eager to listen to everything that Malfoy had to say,now that he was finally revealing his true self.

"By what?"

Malfoy didn't answer, he just added several ingredients into the cooled potion.

"Malfoy…" Hermione prodded.

Malfoy met her eye, "you want the truth?"

Hermione nodded.

"I was proven wrong… by you."

_Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz_

Okay, so I know its pretty bad. Okay, really bad. And cheesy. But I hope you enjoyed it anyway. I think that you should review, don't you agree? I like good and bad reviews, especially the constructive ones… so why don't you click that little review button and leave me some feedback? Thanks for reading and I hope that you have a nice day. Unless you don't review, in which case, I hope that you have a very, very bad day. Jk. Kind of.

- Me


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